Florida Schools Suffer After Hurricane Charley

TAMPA, Fla.-Hurricane Charley destroyed seven of the 21 schools in Charlotte County, on August 13. In DeSoto County, the storm left $6 million worth of damage to seven schools in its wake.

In Osceola County, all of the 59 schools suffered storm damage. To compensate for damaged facilities, elementary school in Charlotte County will be held in two shifts, the first beginning at 7 a.m. and the second ending at 5 p.m.

Starting dates for classes in Charlotte County, as in many of the areas affected by the storm, were postponed until the end of August.

Several schools, such as Lemon Bay, were relatively undamaged and managed to resume extracurricular activities. School officials throughout the area affected by the storm are dealing with damaged buildings, homeless teachers and the need to reconfigure bus routes. Power lines were still down in many areas.

Teachers at Ben Hill Griffin Elementary in Polk County salvaged what they could and took the usable supplies to the cafeteria. The school?s roof was peeled back and it will reopen at a rented church in Frostproof.

Governor Jeb Bush visited three schools in the hurricane zone and issued an executive order suspending certain state requirements limiting class size and requiring 180 days of instruction for those counties who applied for waivers. His office announced in a news release that even though Hurricane Andrew 12 years ago had caused less damage than Charley, students would resume class three weeks sooner this time.

Adrian H. Cline, superintendent of schools in DeSoto County, said that administrators and teachers have to get students back in a learning mode, and that would take a little bit of time after their experiences with the storm. The storm did $6 million worth of damage to DeSotos’s seven schools, which serve nearly 5,000 students.

School officials said they were preparing counselors and training teachers how to address trauma with children.